1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a brake system in a vehicle including an automatic traveling device, such as an auto-cruising device, an auto-following device, an auto-steering device or the like, by which the vehicle can travel even in a state in which a driver of the vehicle has released his or her foot from an accelerator pedal.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is an auto-cruising device well-known in the art capable of maintaining traveling speed of a vehicle at a constant speed even if the driver releases his or her foot from an accelerator pedal during traveling of the vehicle. An example is disclosed in laid-open Japanese patent application number 8-175220, as follows. Such an auto-cruising device is of a structure such that when the driver depresses the accelerator pedal or a brake pedal during auto-cruising, the operation of the auto-cruising device is canceled.
For this reason, there is a problem in that the driver cannot put his or her foot on the accelerator pedal or the brake pedal during auto-cruising, and accordingly this requires great patience on the part of the driver and creates a very unpleasant feel with respect to placing his or her foot on the accelerator pedal or the brake pedal. Another problem is that, when it becomes necessary to depress the brake pedal due to a potential collision with another vehicle, or due to a traffic snarl ahead of the subject vehicle, the driver must move his or her foot near the brake pedal without depressing it for a standby operation, but such an operation is difficult.